Sometimes when the pitching probables are announced, you know that your team is in for a pitching duel. Other times, the pitchers just outplay their regular statistics and you get a pitching duel. But with the way things have been going in Major League Baseball, it is not a surprise any given day to see two pitchers come out and dominate up and down the batting order.
That is exactly what happened on the South side of Chicago on Tuesday night, as Lance Lynn and John Danks both came out to put on a show for the fans.
Danks came out firing in the top of the first inning, striking out both Randal Grichuk and Jason Heyward for two of the first three outs of the game. While strikeouts were not his forte, as he only got three more on the night, he only gave up five hits and no walks in his 6.1 innings as he didn't allow a single run to score for the St. Louis Cardinals.
Lynn was not quite as lucky though, as he gave up 2 runs to the Chicago White Sox. Both runs were scored in the bottom of the sixth inning, as Carlos Sanchez led off the inning with a single before Adam Eaton walked to get two runners on with no one out. Tyler Saladino would record the first out as he grounded into a fielder's choice, with Eaton getting thrown out at second. Then, who else would it be but the White Sox best slugger, Jose Abreu to get the opening lead of the game. Both Abreu and Melky Cabrera hit back to back singles to score both base runners and give the White Sox a two run lead.
But the White Sox were not secure yet, as they went to the top of the eighth inning with a lead. Zach Duke took the mound for the White Sox as he is the usual set up man in the eighth, but things would not be quite so normal for him. After getting the first out, Grichuk would hit a single to get on base before Duke would hit Matt Holliday with a pitch to put two runners on. Cardinals Manager Mike Matheny would then make the aggressive move to put Pete Kozma in for Holliday as a pinch runner as Kozma would represent the tying run. But with only one out, and 270 feet from home, it was the right move to make. Duke did get Jhonny Peralta to strike out for the second out, and then the odd event of Catcher's interference put Heyward on first to load the bases. Yadier Molina would then come up to the plate and hit his fourth career triple. It was his third hit of the night and his most important as it scored Grichuk, Kozma, and Heyward to give the Cardinals their first lead of the game and only needing to record six outs to get the win.
But the game was not yet over. Samuel Tuivailala started the eighth for the Cardinals on the mound and while getting two outs he also had Abreu on third following an Avisail Garcia single. Matheny then brought in Kevin Siegrist to face Adam LaRoche and give his team the lefty - lefty matchup they wanted at the plate. It only took Siegrist 3 pitches to strike out LaRoche and the White Sox never got another man on base. It was three up and three down for Cardinals closer Trevor Rosenthal in the bottom of the ninth as the Cardinals earned their come from behind victory.
St. Louis managed to sweep this small two game series and will keep inter league alive as they return home to face the Kansas City Royals at 7:15 ET Thursday Night. Meanwhile, Chicago will hit the road as the travel to face their AL Central rivals the Cleveland Indians at 7:30 PM ET Thursday.
